Ohio Legislators Use Women’s Health as Pawn in Budget Bill

We’ve seen it before and we are seeing it again. Under the guise of budget discussions, the Ohio legislature is holding women’s health hostage to budget negotiations. Yesterday, the Ohio Senate passed their two-year state budget. But rather than focus on cutting taxes for small businesses, or addressing infrastructure needs, the Senators are putting women’s health front and center. There are four specific provisions that will undeniably hurt women.

The budget defunds Planned Parenthood. This is not the first time time Ohio Republicans have sought to take money away from Planned Parenthood. Second, the budget also redirects family planning funds to Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). CPCs are organizations that purport to provide medical services to women, but in fact give women deceptive and misleading information about abortion and birth control. Recently, the North Carolina Senate made a similar decision.  By taking money away from medical providers that provide comprehensive medical care and funneling it to CPCs, legislators are limiting women’s access to quality care. Third, a provision in the bill will likely force abortion providers to close their doors. The law will prohibit public hospitals from having “transfer agreements” with abortion clinics, but, without a transfer agreement many abortion providers cannot get licensed by the state’s Department of Health. This type of regulation, known as TRAP, is intended to make it more difficult for abortion clinics and providers to offer services to women. A fourth provision of the budget takes money away from rape crisis centers. This provision of the bill was originally intended to create a Rape Crisis Trust Fund. But in an interesting twist, substitutions to the bill were made that prohibit funding for any rape crisis center that refers rape survivors to abortion clinics. Rape crisis centers usually help victims navigate the legal system so they aren’t forced to do so alone. By defunding these centers, the Ohio Senate is essentially saying that protecting rape survivors and ensuring they receive the care and justice they deserve is not a priority. How shameful.

The House version of the bill, which passed in April, defunds Planned Parenthood and redirects funding to CPCs. Whether it is the House version or the Senate version that goes to the Governor for his signature, it will be bad for women and their health.

Our elected officials need to realize that they cannot continue to use women’s health as a bargaining chip in their budget debates. These decisions have real impacts on real women’s lives. It is time those in office start focusing on the other things and leave the medical decisions to women and our doctors.